


The Fable of the Bear and Fox

by cthulhuraejepsen



Category: Original Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-29
Updated: 2016-01-29
Packaged: 2018-05-17 01:20:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5848414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cthulhuraejepsen/pseuds/cthulhuraejepsen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bear and Fox are given a task by Father Moose. Written for /r/rational's weekly challenge.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Fable of the Bear and Fox

One day Father Moose came to Bear and Fox with a challenge, which he often did.

“You have one month to bring me the smartest rabbit in the forest,” said Father Moose.

“What does that mean?” Bear asked with a furrowed brow.

“You have one month,” repeated Father Moose, as was often his way when asked questions.

Bear meditated upon the challenge for a moment. He did not know how Father Moose would judge which rabbit was the smartest, but after some time he began to imagine that Father Moose would issue a test. Bear did not know what the nature of this test would be, but he felt certain that there would be a test. He decided that he would round up as many rabbits as he could and do his own tests on them.

To this end, Bear set out a great many traps throughout the forest. By the end of a week, he had thirty rabbits, each humanely trapped. He built a house to keep all of them in, then numbered each so that he could keep track of them. He began to design his tests for the rabbits. He would give them a shock if they did not press a lever every thirty minutes, then graded them on how quickly they learned this rule. He made them swim towards goals. He made them run mazes. Bear did not know what it truly meant to be smart, but he knew the things that he expected a smart rabbit to be able to do.

As Bear was gathering up carrots to feed these rabbits, he saw Fox lazing about. Because Bear had faced many of these challenges before, he knew that Fox was very clever. Fox did not seem to be worried, which made Bear worried.

Bear began to cull the rabbits. He ate those which failed too many of the tests. By this method, he narrowed his thirty rabbits down to four. Yet as the month drew to a close, he could not decide which of the four was the smartest rabbit. All had done well on the tests, but their rankings were not consistent from day to day. Eventually Bear took a weighted average and selected a rabbit from among them, though he knew that he would feel foolish if Father Moose declared that one of the other rabbits had been the smart one.

When the time came for judging, Fox brought his own rabbit, which struggled in his mouth. Fox looked smug, which made Bear even more nervous than he had been before.

Father Moose took one look at the two rabbits he had been presented with and declared that Fox was the winner.

“How did you know which rabbit was the smartest?” Bear asked Fox after Father Moose had left. “I tested nearly thirty rabbits in ways I thought were quite clever.”

“Yes,” nodded Fox. “I peeked in and saw. But you made a mistake very early on which you did not catch. You set traps all through the forest in order to get very many rabbits to test. Yet you did not realize that there would be a difference between the rabbits you caught and the rabbits you did not catch. Those which fell for your traps were much less smart than those who avoided them. Why, I had only to wait until your traps had snared the stupid rabbits and I was assured that I would be able to pick a smart one from among those remaining.”

Beware selection bias.


End file.
